Wolf Alice at First Ave Wolf Alice Electric Fetus Acoustic In-Store Setlist
Wolf Alice First Avenue Setlist
Tour Dates
3/29 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall
3/30 Chicago, IL Metro 3/31 Detroit, MI The Shelter 4/2 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall 4/3 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom 4/4 Pittsburgh, PA Club AE 4/6 Buffalo, NY Town Ballroom 4/7 Albany, NY The Hollow 4/9 Portland, ME Port City Music Hall 4/10 Boston, MA Paradise 4/12 New Haven, CT College Street Music Hall 4/13 Baltimore, MD Rams Head Live 4/14 Norfolk, VA NorVa 4/16 Chapel Hill, NC Cat’s Cradle 4/17 Charlotte, NC Visulite Theatre 4/19 Charleston, SC The Music Farm 4/21 Athens, GA Georgia Theatre 4/22 Nashville, TN Third & Lindsley 4/24 Austin, TX Austin 360 Amph 4/25 Irving, TX Pavillion 4/26 Shreveport, LA Municipal Auditorium 4/27 New Orleans, LA Saenger Theatre 4/29 Jacksonville, FL Welcome to Rockville 5/1 Miami, FL Bay Front Amp 5/2 St. Petersburgh, FL Municipal Auditorium 6/1 New York, NY Governors Ball Read More
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The Wolf can have two faces-
One docile, beguiling and seemingly gentle, while the other being dark, ferocious, and relentless, and we saw both of these faces on display as rising UK alt-rock band Wolf Alice played three performances in two days (all in support of their sophomore full-length, Visions of a Life [Dirty Hit/RCA Records]), including to a capacity crowd in the Mainroom at First Avenue.
Wolf Alice at The Electric Fetus Poster
26 Mar 2018
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The performance turned out to be a surprising sit-down acoustic set of four songs, beginning with newest single, ‘Sadboy’ from the new record, followed by ‘Space & Time’. The band took a minute after, to plug their headlining show at First Avenue the following night, humbly saying “it will probably be good”, to crowd laughter.
When someone asked what they had seen of the city so far, “quite a lot of the hotel room” was the reply, also noting their stop at nearby Brit’s Pub for a pint, the authentic UK surroundings there getting them a little homesick.
The wordplay on the new ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ by Rowsell was more pronounced in the unplugged format, and the more bare arrangements allowed her voice to soar like a floating bird over the audience, while 2013’s ‘Bros’ became a slowly rolling soundtrack for the cold rain spackling outside, Roswell asking in song, “are you wild like me?”.
The following afternoon, the band reprised that format and three of the four songs, for an in-studio at local public radio station, The Current, streaming here:
For their headlining show, the evening was opened up by another London-originating band, The Big Pink, whose music remains a moody guitar/electro pop blend ,but whose lineup has changed since being originally being a duo. Now a quartet (Robbie Furze, Lady Mary Charteris, Bradford Lee Conroy, and [not present Nicole Emery]), original member Furze has re-invented the band, adding wife Charteris and is in support of EP Empire Underground (B3SCI Records) and some recent singles.
The boy/girl vocals on the newer tracks make for a refreshing update to their sound (think Jesus and Mary Chain w/Hope Sandoval-esque), while hits like 2009’s ‘Dominos’ played early on, remain intact as remembered. Ending their set with 2009’s other single, ‘Velvet’, Furze seems re-energized, particularly singing lines like “I found her in a dream, looking for me, this heart's on fire,” as his wife stands mere feet away.
Fittingly, hoots and howls from the crowd greeted Wolf Alice as they made their way to the stage for their eighty-minute set, playing over half the new album and beginning their set with its two opening tracks, the lifting ‘Heavenward’ and the angst-filled rage of ‘Yuk Foo’, the Wolf baring its teeth early on, and without mercy.
The band isn’t really one to say much between songs, preferring instead to let the music do the talking and keep the dark, unflinching momentum they work on building throughout, though the smiles from the members indicated their gratefulness for the engaged crowd.
Rowsell shed her guitar temporarily six songs in, for their self-described “love song”, ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’, speaking “I’d like to get to know you, I’d like to take you out” like she was talking individually to each member in the crowd, many then wailing along with her, as she wondered aloud, “what if it’s not meant for me?- love”.
The title of the new ‘Beautifully Unconventional’ almost defines the band’s unique identity as a whole, featuring lyric, “She's beautifully unconventional, I love to see her rise above us all” (or maybe the following ‘Formidably Cool’, because they’re that as well).
The throb of ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ had the crowd on the floor moving en masse and the new album’s ‘Space & Time’ found everyone clapping along, as guitarist Oddie gradually abused his guitar more and more, shaking it violently and holding it up swinging.
The two-song encore began by reaching back to the title track of their initial 2013 EP, ‘Blush’, which is mostly the quiet of their loud-quiet-loud sound, the devoted as “punch drunk, dumb struck, pot luck happy happy” to hear it live, as the song lyrics imply.
Refusing to leave any stone unturned (or any face not melted) things ended with the grinding gut punch of ‘Giant Peach’, Rowswell’s and Oddie’s beast-size fierce guitar riffs talking us along on their stalking journey through a “dark and pretty town”. As the feedback and delay remained snarling, the band waved and left the stage one last time, to cheers, exhaustion, and a sense of awe.
Look for Wolf Alice to continue their hunt, on the road for most of the summer, playing venues from club-size to massive stadiums, opening for Foo Fighters, with likely a few more acoustic promotional appearances peppered in as well.
The Wolf has two faces, one deceptively calm but brooding; the other swift, cunning, and showing no quarter, both the faces of an urgent and vibrant band well worth watching how they might strike next.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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